NDOLA LIME COMPANY LIMITED

Zambia’s leading lime producer

Founded on 10th January 1931 as the Northern Rhodesia Lime Company Limited, Ndola Lime Company Limited is the country’s major producer of limestone products supplying the mines and other key industries with various products. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of ZCCM Investments Holdings Plc.

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NLC Corporate Profile

Extract from 2018 annual report

Ndola Lime Company Limited (NLC) reported total revenues for the financial year ended 31st March 2018 of K60.1 million (2017: K89.6 million) and a loss after tax of K190 million (2017: K1.1 billion loss).

Major contributors to the loss were the below budget sales figures, huge finance costs; and penalties on overdue statutory obligations totalling K100 million.

On 21st September 2017, NLC’s Vertical Kiln 2 (VK2) was engulfed in flames, an occurrence that damaged several components of the kiln, rendering it dysfunctional. VK1 underwent refurbishments to its refractory bricks but could not be fired up due to NLC’s lack of working capital, a situation that eventually led to production at the company grounding to a halt with only limited repacking activity going on.

Subsequent to the year end, two (2) former employees of Ndola Lime Company Limited (NLC) instituted proceedings to the High Court of Zambia to place NLC under supervision pursuant to the Corporate Insolvency Act No. 9 of 2017. By order of the Court dated 5th October 2018, the Official Receiver was appointed as Interim Business Administrator of NLC. The application for the Business Rescue Proceedings will be heard in January 2019 at which all affected persons (including ZCCM-IH) will be heard. However, ZCCM-IH remains committed to the affairs of NLC and will continue to pursue all activities that better the Company and ZCCM-IH’s investments.

There were no dividends declared during the year under review (2017: Nil)

Extract from 2017 annual report

Ndola Lime Company Limited (NLC) reported total revenues for the financial year ended 31st March 2017 of K89.6 million (2016: K196.6 million) and a loss before tax of K1,163 million (2016: K82.3 million loss).

Ndola Lime Company (“NLC”) has been working on optimizing a second vertical kiln (“VK-2”) to be powered by coal that will result in additional capacity of 500 tonnes per day. The primary objectives of the VK2 is to substitute the inefficient and out-dated operations of the Rotary Kiln and reduce operational expenses attributable to the use of Heavy Fuel Oil (“HFO”) through the use of coal. Following the perennial escalation in costs related to the Recapitalization Project (RP) and adverse financial performance from the latter half of 2013 onwards, owing to a myriad of factors including significant escalations in the price of HFO, loss of market share, ZCCM-IH resolved to finance the completion of the RP which has cost about $105 million to date. The hot commissioning of the project started in December 2015. However, the commissioning of the project has been met with a lot of challenges.

There were no dividends declared during the year under review (2016: Nil).